Politics of gun control take the spotlight after Oregon tragedy

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An impassioned President Barack Obama did not mince words Thursday, calling for stricter guns laws in wake of the tragedy in Oregon.

It seems the president already had a good idea of what was going to happen next.

“Somebody, somewhere will comment and say ‘Obama politicized this issue,”’ he said during a White House briefing Thursday. “Well this is something we should politicize!”

It didn’t take long for the pols to take the bait.

“I keep waiting for someone to tell me what new gun law can we pass that would have prevented this shooting or Sandy Hook or Aurora or Charleston,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said in a taped statement posted on his website Friday. “Just tell me what gun law that is.”

Marco Rubio also threw in his two cents.

“The question is why are people committing more acts of violence, irrespective of what instrument they are using? I think there are deep societally issues involved for example values.”

While Rep. Mike McCaul (R) Texas, made the assessment that the shooter had an obvious mental issue.

“This obviously looks like a case of mental illness, we've seen this story way too many times,” he said.

While many on the Right named mental illness as the culprit Democratic Presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton vowed to make things different when she’s elected into office.

“I feel an absolute urgency for this country to start being sensible about keeping guns away from people who should not have them.”

Whether it’s gun control or mental illness, the numbers do not lie. In a challenge to the media, President Obama made a request.

"Have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who've been killed through terrorist attacks in the last decade and the number of Americans who've been killed by gun violence, and post those side by side on your news reports."

The numbers provided by the State Department are staggering, revealing that more than 10,000 Americans get killed every year by gun violence.

New York City which has, over the years, implemented its own strict gun control laws has seen tremendous success with gun-related deaths, plummeting during the tenures of Mayors Rudy Guiliani and Michael Bloomberg.

However, Mayor Guiliani who was a fierce advocate for gun control back in 1993 as seen during an appearance on Face The Nation.

“The simple fact is we have to try to fight back. We just can’t sit here and let this kind of carnage go on. Gun licensing would help,” a newly elected Giuliani told Bob Schieffer of CBS.

Since then, he has appeared to have changed his tune, attacking Obama’s urging of stronger gun control laws during an appearance on FOX and Friends.

“The reality is gun control laws control the behavior of legitimate people. People who rob stores, people who rob banks and people who are insane and want to go ahead and murder people don’t follow gun control laws.”